AFTER the rest of creation was broken by man’s sin, we hear no more of the Sabbath throughout the book of Genesis and not until God’s earthly people were redeemed from Egypt. Then in Exodus 16, when they were in the wilderness, God again introduced the Sabbath on the occasion of the giving of the manna. On the sixth day Israel was to gather a double portion of the manna, to lay up for the Sabbath which the Lord declared to be “the rest of the holy Sabbath” unto Himself. So instead of it being His creation and rest as at the beginning, it was now the manna, and rest. The manna we know from John 6 speaks of Christ, that blessed One who was the true Bread come down from heaven. It is through Him that we also shall enjoy that rest of God above.
We now come to the passover. “In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Lord’s pass-over. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.” This goes back to Exodus 12 where we read “this shall be the beginning of months to you.” This is where our history as the children of God began. When we were converted—brought to God. The ground of our relationship to God as His children is redemption, and redemption is a song that God has put into our mouths. So here the first feast then in type is the precious death of Christ.
The passover is an accomplished fact; Christ has died for us. Scripture supposes the Christian knows redemption for it says: “Forasmuch as ye know ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold,... but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” 1 Pet. 1:1818Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; (1 Peter 1:18). The passover took place in the first month when God brought judgment upon the Egyptians, and His people found shelter under the blood of the slain lamb. Nothing else secured the Israelites in Egypt from the destroying angel that night, and nothing else secures a sinner now but faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His shed blood.
All the other feasts are founded upon the passover—that is redemption. The next feast, that of “unleavened bread,” began the very next day after the passover and was directly connected with it. The two could not be separated. In Luke 22:1 They are referred to as one: “Now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh, which is called the pass-over.” In 1 Corinthians 5 we are told “let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” v. 8. Leaven is used as a symbol of evil throughout Scripture.
Furthermore, this feast lasted for seven days. That has been going on in the Church of God since Christ died and went to heaven. And so, the feast of unleavened bread has been going on for nearly 2000 years. But the seven days also would speak to us of how our lives should be marked by “the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” We are called to put away sin out of our lives and to remember that we are “unleavened.”
ML-08/13/1972